Courageous Love
by Aphonic
Summary: The girl took a deep breath and jumped into the water, keeping her above the surface with one hand holding onto the beam.


Miyako sat on a beam under the dock and smiled at the serenity of her hiding place. The water glistened in the sunlight and gently slapped against the worn wood of the dock. As far as she could see, the ocean was calm and bright, reflecting all of the light of the summer day. Miyako spun the water in small circles with her toe, barely touching the water. The ripples traveled out until they disappeared in the water.  
  
Miyako leaned back against the wooden pole and looked at her sandles with were hooked onto a rusty nail from one of the beams. She continued to splash water with feet. Everything seemed perfect underneath the dock unlike what is was above. She dreaded the moment when the sun would go down and she would be forced to leave her utopia.  
  
She sighed as she heard mumbled voices above her and recognized the voices as Mimi and Hikari. Miyako hadn't talked to any of the Digidestined since the last adventure. Except Ken. She missed having them right by her side no matter what mess she got them into and she hated having to hide her bruises and scars from them. She knew she had to. They would ask and she couldn't lie to them- they used to be her best friends.  
  
Miyako remembered all of the times each one had save her life, more than they ever could have realized at the same. She always wanted to tell them but she couldn't find the courage. Miyako struggled to listen to the conversation, still wondering if she should come out of her hiding place.  
  
"Did you hear what Koushiro said?" Mimi asked Hikari as she threw a shell into the water. It made a small splashing sound and threw water at Miyako before sinking. Miyako merely made a face at the spot where the shell ran away to.  
  
"No, I haven't talk to him," Hikari said and looked toward the beach, where many of the Digidestined were gathered.   
  
Miyako pulled out the invitation from her back pocket without a noise and read it . Hikari had organized a sort of a reunion for the Digidestined. Miyako wanted to talk to everyone but decided to sit beneath the dock on the sidelines, listening to everyone's live and forgetting about hers, but it wasn't that easy. She could hear everyone laughing and playing. She could hear them when they went on the dock and she could see them when they ran into the water, laughing just like all those times before.  
  
Mimi followed Hikari's gaze and nodded, "He told me that Ken was going back to his old ways. Ordering Miyako all around and trying to make her marry him. I always thought they would the perfect couple."  
  
"So did I," Hikari agreed and looked back at Mimi. "What's going on with them?"  
  
Mimi looked down at the planks of the dock and kicked it with her sandle. "Sora told me that she heard that Miyako told Ken that she didn't want to marry him because she loved someone else. But Ken is still being an asshole about it."  
  
"Is Ken here?" Hikari asked and looked at the beach again, looking for the man.  
  
Mimi shook her head and looked up from the dock as Hikari looked back from the beach, "No, he isn't. He's probably off somewhere beating Miyako. I haven't seen her either."  
  
"We have to tell someone." Hikari demanded and the other girl nodded. The two friends ran off the dock, their footsteps retreating from the solid wood to the sand. Miyako could see them as they ran down the beach to join the others.  
  
"They know," Miyako frowned at the fact. She could easily tell them, since they knew, but why was she still so afraid? She remembered the scene with Ken as she stared into the water, as if the reflecting surface could show her what she should do.  
  
A few days ago, she had showed him the card from Hikari. He tore it from her hands and looked at it with a look of pure hatred on his face. Miyako had just looked at him, wondering like she always did what had happened to the boy she fell in love with. The boy she tried to protect and save. The boy that she believed in. What had happened to him that made him act like this all over again?  
  
This morning, she had timidly asked him if he wanted to go. The look on Ken's face when she had asked was so evil that it made her speechless. She had no response to the anger in his eyes. Miyako nodded and walked away slowly, "We don't have to go if you don't want to."  
  
"Exactly, Miyako." Ken hissed at the back of the girl and turned back to the book his hands. "Remember that all the time, it is always my choice."  
  
Miyako blinked herself back into reality and stood up on the beam. She held out her arms and positioned her feet as she balanced with the grace of a cat. She stripped herself from her shorts and tank top, revealing a simple swimsuit. She threw the clothes over the beam next to her sandles.  
  
The girl took a deep breath and jumped into the water, keeping her above the surface with one hand holding onto the beam. It's how she felt all the time as she thought about Ken. Keeping above the surface by just one hold, if that. She had no idea what to do as she drifted off into her memories of Ken and herself.  
  
*****  
  
"Hey, Hikari-chan. Hey, Mimi." Daisuke waved to the two girls. He was sitting on the sand, staring into the ocean, with no idea who was out there. He grinned up at the two girls as they stood in front of him, the sun shining behind them and making them look like spirits.  
  
"Daisuke, have you talked to Miyako or Ken or Koushiro or Sora?" Mimi asked and then bit her lip at the question, realizing the absurdity of it.  
  
"Too many 'or's." Daisuke laughed but quickly realized how serious Mimi was. "I haven't talked to any of them. I haven't seen Miyako or Ken for years. Why?"  
  
"Daisuke, Ken is hurting Miyako. And he is trying to force her to marry him." Hikari said in a loud and quick voice. She took a deep breath and looked at the boy who used to have a crush on her. The so-called leader of their team despite that he got them into all the trouble that he got them out of.  
  
"He is? I can't believe it." Daisuke looked at the sand and buried his bare toe into it. He shook his head and looked up, "Ken wouldn't do that."  
  
"Ken wouldn't but the Kaiser would." Mimi stated and looked between Hikari and Daisuke.  
  
*****  
  
Miyako took a deep breath as she broke out of the past. Despite the words of Hikari and Mimi and her knowing that Ken wasn't doing anything right, she didn't think she could leave him. She felt something slimy around her ankle and gasped, thinking it was a fish.   
  
The girl reached down with her free and grabbed it. She brought above the water and grinned at her worry over a piece of seawead. She could have laughed at the underwater weed until it wrapped itself around her wrist. Miyako gasped in surprise as she tried to pull herself from the water with the hand on the beam.  
  
The seaweed travelled up her arm and down her side and appeared to grow as it moved. It wrapped around her leg with its horrible texture and seemed to have a mission of wrapping her entire body. "Help! Somebo-!" Miyako's calls were cut off by the fierce seaweed trapping her voice from leaving her mouth.  
  
*****  
  
Daisuke looked toward the dock and then back at the girls. They had an equally surprised look on the face, "Did you hear that?"  
  
"I think it was someone screaming." Hikari answered with noticeable worry in her voice. Mimi nodded as Daisuke sprinted toward the dock. The two girls chased after him, their feet pounding against the sand, making hurried and desperate footsteps.  
  
*****  
  
Miyako let go of the beam and pulled the seaweed away from her mouth, taking in deep breaths and struggling to keep herself above water. She heard footsteps on the dock above and saw a figure shadowed in the sunshine. She was relieved that someone had heard her cries. Miyako couldn't stand it if her cries went unnoticed in another situation.  
  
"Help me. This thing is.." Miyako gasped as the figure blocked the sun and Daisuke's face seemed translucent as the sun radiated behind him. "Daisuke!"  
  
Daisuke's eyes were wide with surprise and he dropped to his chest and laid on the dock. He reached his arm down and yelled to the girl, "Miyako, grab on!"  
  
"Don't let me drown." Miyako called frantically as she reached up her free arm. She felt the seaweed swimming around her neck, threatening to strangle her if she left their sanctuary. The living weeds danced in the water around and tugged at her feet and as her fingers touched Daisuke's, the seaweed pulled her under the surface.  
  
"Miyako!?" Daisuke jumped up in one fluid motion and slipped off his shirt with ease. Mimi and Hikari looked on from behind him as he prepared to jump into the graveyard of seaweed.  
  
"What are you doing, Daisuke?" Hikari demanded as he took a step to the edge of the dock. Her voice was full of worry and he understood. "Where are you going?"  
  
"I have to save Miyako." Daisuke called back and jumped into the water with splash. He didn't feel the seaweed and he dove beneath the surface, searching for any sign of the things that stole Miyako.  
  
*****  
  
Miyako raised her head and blinked her eyes, trying to focus on anything to know where she was. All she could tell that it was a cavern. The seaweed around her arms and legs pulled into the wall and kept her stationary. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down and understand. "Hello? Whre am I?"  
  
The shadows laughed, a cruel and demented laugh. They moved with liquid grace and the voice continued with each bitter word being bitten off, "You are here."  
  
"Ken." Miyako yelled into the darkness and watched the moving shadow. She glanced around at everything but it was nothing. Just rocks and seaweed. "Why did you do this?"  
  
"I told you not to go to that reunion," Ken hissed and smiled as he walked up to Miyako. He swung his hand and slapped her across the face. Miyako turned her head with no tears and studied the sandy ground. "You will listen to me, bitch."  
  
"Don't touch her. Ever. Again." Daisuke's voice yelled from behind Ken. The man turned around but not before Miyako noticed a look of worry in his eyes. She allowed a smile to grace her face. Daisuke stepped forward and looked at Ken with dangerous eyes.  
  
"Daisuke. You are so courageous to come down here to die." Ken smiled and moved to the side. He grinned, the grin known for the Kaiser's grin and not Ken's sweet grin. Miyako winced at that grin. She knew that Ken was gone and would never come back. He waved his hand toward the girl, "You can have her."  
  
Daisuke ran up to Miyako and grabbed the seaweed to tear it away from the girl's body. The seaweed moved around his wrist and Daisuke looked at it with a confused look.  
  
"Good bye, Daisuke. Miyako." Ken smiled and went through a hidden door between two boulders. As soon as he was gone, the cavern started to fill up with water. The coldness shocked Miyako and she gasped.  
  
"Go, Daisuke. You can save yourself." Miyako yelled. Daisuke shook his head slowly and put his other hand on Miyako's wrist and the seaweed begun to pull him into their graveyard. "Daisuke?"  
  
Daisuke smiled as the water reached their waists. "Miyako, I love you and I won't let you drown alone."  
  
"Daisuke, I love you too." Miyako smiled and tears fell to mix with the rising water. Daisuke kissed Miyako and the two stayed like that as the water filled above their heads, bringing them both below the surface. 


End file.
